Assam CID files chargesheet in scholarship embezzlement case

Guwahati, Feb 5 (IANS) The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Assam on Thursday filed a chargesheet in the court accusing 32 persons for the embezzlement of pre-matric scholarship funds for minority students totalling to about Rs 10 crore, officials said.An Assam police spokesman said that the 32 arrested persons include four headmasters, two data processors, two assistant teachers, two presidents of school management committees, eight owners of customer service points of various banks and 14 middlemen.He said the 7,386-page chargesheet was submitted before the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Kamrup (Metro) district in 86 days from the date of the first arrest in the case .The statements of 10 witnesses have also been recorded by the Judicial Magistrate under the provision of Section 164 of the CrPc. All the 32 accused persons are in jail under judicial custody. The CID sleuths during the probe seized 14 laptops, 13 mobile phones, two hard-disks, several electronic devices and a fingerprint scanner along with documents from several districts of the state.The case was registered on the basis of an FIR lodged on August 28 last year by the director of the Assam Minorities Development Board and the state nodal officer for pre-matric scholarship for minorities.The pre-matric scholarship for the students belonging to the minority community is a central scheme sponsored and implemented by the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs for students securing 50 per cent marks in the previous examination and whose parents' annual income does not exceed Rs 1 lakh.
--IANS sc/arm